A Magical Menagerie of Misery
by RandomStickyHat
Summary: Draco's life is a barren wasteland, he has no passions, no friendships and no aspirations. Hermione is a shy girl. Her housemates aren't friendly, Weasley and Potter never bother with her. What happens when the two collide? I apologize for what is yet to come. Credit for characters etc. goes to J.K Rowling. Bullying, depressing themes, possible triggers. You have been warned.
1. Chapter 1: Routine

Draco's eyes fluttered open as he awoke to another pointless day of his dreary school life. He immediately wondered what kind of mess Potter and Weasley would get into today, but figured he could never guess anyway and stayed in bed, staring into nothing before his alarm clock went off and he could finally get up. He got dressed and looked at himself in the mirror. He would definitely prefer being able to wear his favorite hoodie instead of these insipid robes, and thought about writing to his father about it, but decided against it and walked oit of the common room, not bothering to take his books with him, since someone else always did it. He never could remember the boy's name, but he wasn't interested in the slightest to know either.

The corridors were still pretty much empty, not surprising, as it was still too early for classes, and breakfast would have been just brought into the dining hall. He preferred eating early, he found that he could avoid annoying people, which was pretty much everyone, that way and he certainly was not interested in watching Potter and Weasley start another food fight, once had been quite enough. As he sat down and put a piece of toast on his plate his eyes wandered the room. That girl with the messy hair was sitting at the Gryffindor table with her nose stuck in a book, barely touching her food, and there were a few Hufflepuffs at their table, snoozing off as they had no doubt had another one of their late night parties. Draco could hear them from the corridor nearly every night, but had never bothered to tell a teacher about the ruckus, as they'd no doubt not believe it anyway. No, the Hufflepuffs were untouchable in terms of making them look bad. Turns out having the reputation of being the nice and boring house really did come with its benefits.

Draco turned and saw two lonely Ravenclaws getting into a heated argument over wizard chess, and sighed before finishing his toast. The food tasted great, and it was one of the few pleasures Draco would always look forward to, even though it was merely a weak comfort. Another slice of toast later and he was all set to head out. More people had poured into the dining hall, and he thought he spotted a vibrantly red head amongst them, and did not want to take any chances. He wandered around the castlle for a while, pondering. What would be the emptiest room that he could get into at this time of day? He didn't want to accidentally run run into Peeves, although he could hear him teasing some first years you never knew when he would switch targets. The Astronomy Tower was generally locked when classes were not in session, but that's nothing a little spell can't take care of.

When he arrived he found the door already unlocked, and he slowly made his way up the stairs, he didn't want to run into an unsuspecting couples on the way, but there were none. This was odd, since most people avoided the tower, except for those annoying lovers whom obviously didn't have anything better to do than disturb others. He reached the top of the stares and was met with a curious sight. The girl with the wild hair was leaning against the rail, and she was murmuring to an owl. The book was laying on the floor by her feet, and he could barely make out the title from his hiding spot - The Complete Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen. Draco had never before seen the book, or heard of the author, but then again he seldom read children's stories. Never, actually.

The girl was still talking to the owl, he had a hard time hearing what she was saying, but it seemed to be a full on conversation, such as people have with close friends. Of course he didn't know much about them, the only friend he'd ever had was Blaise, but they weren't really close. Draco didn't despise him like he did all the others, but he didn't really like him either. He observed the girl for a longer time than he had intended to, and the walked down the stairs again. He went to the Slytherin common room, but it was filled with a loud buzzing, so he wandered the corridors until his first class started. He sat down at the table in his potions classroom and pushed his books to the side. He rested his head in his palm and tried not to get annoyed at the people who loudly started pouring into the room, chatting and laughing. Finally the teacher arrived and hushed them down, when he turned to the blackboard the girl from before came running from the door and sat down in the front before the teacher turned again.

Draco barely listened as the teacher started talking, he looked around the classroom, observing the ignorant people who surrounded him. Potter and Weasley was stirring up something in the back as per usual, but the teacher just went on, ignoring them, as per usual. He asked the class a question, and a few hands went up in the air.

"Yes, miss Granger?"

The girl that he had seen in the Astronomy Tower gave him the correct answer and earned Gryffindor 5 points. The system was a joke, teachers regularly gave their favorite students more points than others, and in the end Dumbledore just handed out points as it suited him. Slytherin had, of course, won the house cup a fair amount of times, but Draco couldn't care less. School was merely a hindrance in his intellectual growth, and he pitied the fools that didn't realize they were wasting their lives in this institution.

When they were dismissed the wild-haired girl had earned Gryffindor an extra 15 points, and Draco was happy to get out of there. He had and hour and a half until his next class, and he hurried out, not bothering with his books, eager to get away from his tedious house mates. They had stopped asking him to join them by now, but still tried to talk to him on occasion. Something he was happy to avoid.


	2. Chapter 2: When Monsters Roam Free

Draco hurried down the corridor and turned a corner just in time to see the girl walk into the girls lavatories. A few seconds later 3 other girls entered as well while a 4th one stayed outside, her back against the wall, scowling at anyone that seemed to head in that direction. Ridiculous. Why would anyone care who did and did not go into the bathroom? If Draco didn't understand boys his age, or any age for that matter, then girls might as well be aliens. Well, it didn't matter. He hated interacting with girls, their ill-veiled attempts at flirting were extremely irritating, batting their eyelashes like crazy, trying to touch him all the time. He was quite disgusted by it all.

Draco hadn't noticed the route he was taking and found himself at the top of one of the moving staircases. It seemed he was on his way to the third floor. He might as well get off here, students were piling up behind him and he wasn't in a rush, so he casually stepped off and was nearly run over by a pair of impatient second year Gryffindors. He didn't bat an eye as he just plain didn't care, at least they didn't stop to apologize and waste even more of his time, he'd already lost half an hour of his break, and he did not intend to lose any more. He headed down the stairs again as soon as the stream of people had passed, all the way to the first floor, and went to the library. It wasn't usually occupied by more than a few stundents at break, studying for a test that same day that they were most likely going to fail. He looked around for a while, picked up a few books here and there and then headed for a table in the corner closest to the restricted section. He sat down the books, creating a wall between himself and the outside world, he then picked up one of the books at random. It was a book called The Healer's Helpmate by someone named H. Pollingtonious and he started reading at random.

Before he knew it a stack of books were slammed down on the table, and Draco looked up, annoyed at whomever dared disturb him, and saw Blaise drop down onto the chair right in front of him with a loud sigh.

"Damn, these books sure are heavy." Blaise paused. "But of course you wouldn't know."

Draco didn't bother to answer, but Blaise didn't seem to even notice.

"Anyway, I saw that Granger girl earlier, running towards the Astronomy Tower. She seemed upset." He waited for a response, and Draco sighed and gave in.

"Why should I care? I don't even know her name."

"I've seen how you've been looking at her. How, when your eyes wander, they always seem to find her." Draco was about to answer, but Blaise cut him off. "Don't worry, I won't tell. Your secret is safe with me, but anyway, we should leave, class starts in like 15 minutes."

Draco sighed and closed the book, leaving them all at the table, and followed Zabini out. Their next class was herbology, and Draco actually managed to get through the whole lesson without having to curse someone under his breath.

The rest of the day went by, as in a haze, but that wasn't anything unusual. In fact, except for the talk with Zabini in the library, everything had been routine, as it always were. He was bored to death of it, but stirring up trouble was Potter's job, and it had stopped being charming ages ago.

That talk with Zabini, it annoyed him somehow, he was used to the usual slurs and whispers, but he wasn't _always_ looking at her, was he? He knew nothing about her, and quite frankly, he didn't want to either. People came with trouble, or they were just boring, most often a combination of the two. He wanted nothing to do with teenage drama. Merely a week ago, when Potter had dumped Cho for the 3rd time, Ginny had actually slugged him, creating a mayor conflict between the youngest Weasleys, and it had gone on for days. Really, how did people bother? _Why_ did they bother?

Draco went to sleep that night, dreaming of a wild mane of hair, falling just out of his reach, down the Astronomy Tower. When he woke up the following day, however, he had no memories of the dream, and he got up, got dressed, and the day continued onwards, just as it had done the past day, and the past year, and just like it would for years to come. This continued for about a week, before something actually broke his routine.

It was a beautiful day in late May, which meant that most of the students spent as much of their time as possible outside, and that meant Draco had the castle pretty much to himself during nearly all times of day. He took advantage of this and usually sat himself down in a window, as it was pretty warm, high above the ground by the stairs, and simply rested for a bit. He was awoken by some sort of ruckus further down the hall, and jumped from the window to see what it was.

It was a group of girls, maybe five or six of them, standing in a circle and looking down at something in the middle, taking terms kicking it. One of the girls, Pansy Parkinson, looked up too see him standing there, only to ignore him and continue. They seemed to be talking and laughing, and he really had no idea what about, until he saw a piece of brown, messy hair between them. That girl he always seemed unfortunate enough to encounter was sitting in the middle, shielding her head with her arms, not doing anything to stop the assault. He caught a quick glimpse of her face, and saw something that struck a nerve in him. Her face was just as devoid of emotion as the one that always stared back at him in the mirror.

He stood in awe and watched them when they minutes later left the girl, laughing and joking like nothing had just happened, joining the other students outside. The girl, however, stood and stared into his eyes with such force that he took a step back. As she picked up her books he saw tears streaming down her face, but he heard no sound, no whimper, other than her light steps as she hurried in the direction of what he could only guess was the hospital wing.

Draco was still, shook to the bones by what he had just witnessed, and pondered whether he should follow her, or perhaps give Pansy a proper beatdown, but before he had come to a conclusion the halls were crowded with people as the bell signaled the next class was about to begin.

The wild-haired girl didn't attend any of the classes Draco had with her, and the rest of the Gryffindors, that day and by dinner he had forgotten all about the incident. At night he was awoken from his sleep by a cold finger covering his mouth as he stared into the eyes of the person to whom it belonged.


	3. Chapter 3: Letting Demons Out to Play

Standing there, bent over him, was Pansy Parkinson. She hushed, as if he was going to say something, and waved for him to follow her to the common room. He reluctantly did, and, in the light of the fireplace, she started talking.

"Had a nice afternoon?"

Draco crossed his arms over his bare chest, unwilling to answer her.

Pansy looked annoyed for a second, but her expression changed as she looked at his arms, and she took a few steps closer. "You know," she said, trailing the outlines of his abs with her still, despite the fire, cold finger, "you don't look half bad."

Draco struggled to keep his face from reflecting his disgust, and stayed in place, not moving a muscle.

"That lousy uniform doesn't do you justice..." she trailed off, frozen on the spot, as she continued to stare at his chest, but when Draco tensed up she snapped out of it. "We would make a nice couple, don't you think?"

Draco could no longer contain his revulsion, and let out a loud snort.

"It really is a shame... But I hope you do realize there will be repercussions if any details of what you saw gets out."

Draco had had enough, and when she was about to reach for his face he grabbed her wrist and pulled her in closer, his face was inches from hers as he hissed at her. "The fact that you _think_ you can do _anything_ to me is laughable, and whatever I chose to do, you should know that I've seen enough to not only get you expelled, but also shunned from the social circles you've fought so hard to get into." He squeezed her wrist tighter and continued; "I might not care much about you _vermin_ , but don't you _ever_ think that you can threaten me." He pushed her away, nearly making her fall.

"But-" she whimpered, and was cut off by him.

"If I ever catch you pulling some stupid shit like this again, you will deeply regret it. Now get the hell out of my sight, and bother me again."

Pansy tried putting on a brave face, and turned around without a word, leaving him alone in the dimly lit room. Draco sighed, now too awake to possibly fall back asleep, grabbed his green robe and went up to the Astronomy Tower.

He was in luck, there were no astronomy classes tonight, and as he leaned against the railing, looking out over the school grounds, he felt a sudden relief. Telling Pansy off had been a lot more satisfying than he could have ever guessed. He wasn't going to report her, there was no need, he was sure she wouldn't disturb him again. Draco stayed for another half an hour before yawning and deciding to head back. On the way he saw that girl coming down from the hospital wing, could she have been there all night? She had looked fine earlier, bruised, but otherwise unscathed. Madam Pomfrey didn't usually let students stay for so long forjust a couple of bruises, but why else would she be coming from that direction at this time of night?

Draco yawned again, and realized that he actually didn't care, he didn't even know her name. The confrontation earlier had made him exhausted, and as soon as his face hit the pillow he was asleep. The following day he woke up at around 9 a.m, and stayed in bed for a while, trying to decide what he should do today. It was Saturday, and he didn't have any homework that was due anytime soon. He could always visit Hogsmeade, and for lack of other things to do, he did.

Draco noticed Zabini and some other students heading into the Three Broomsticks, and decided not to enter. The butterbeer wasn't nearly tasty enough to endure his school mates for an extended period of time, and so he wandered around for a while. He ended up at the Hog's Head and entered, despite the nasty smell of goat and filthy environment, convinced that he wouldn't meet anyone he knew in there. Draco reluctantly sat down at one of the dirty tables and relaxed, he had been right, out of the few people that were in there he knew none.

It didn't take long before the door opened again, and when his eyes darted to it he was both irritated and relieved. The person who entered had brown, messy hair, and she was wearing simple clothes that flattered her body. She also had a fresh black eye, and her gaze met Draco's for a split second before she looked away and went up to the man by the bar. She sat down, and they spoke in hushed voices for some time before he led her into the back, and then emerged, alone.

Draco waited for about 40 minutes before the girl came back, and then left the Inn seconds after her. She was heading towards the Shrieking Shack, and he followed her - for what reason he couldn't figure out - but he didn't approach her. She sat down on a rock and took out her wand and placed it beside her, she then reached down and picked up a sharp rock, rolled up her sleeve, and sliced it across her wrist. Draco watched as she repeatedly used the rock to cut into her flesh, and when she was satisfied she let go of the rock and they both watched as the blood dropped onto the ground.

A few drops later and she picked up her wand, waved it around, and a bandage wrapped itself around her arm. Draco had an unpleasant feeling in his stomach, but observed her some more before finally leaving and heading back to school. She was just staring out towards the shack, shuddering in the cold breeze, and so did he.

Summer break was coming up, and Draco hadn't seen much of the wild-haired girl after the incident in Hogsmeade. As he was packing his trunk he suddenly remembered a book that he had forgotten to return to the library. He brought it back, apologized to madam Pince, and was just about to head back when something caught his eye. The girl was sitting in his corner, reading a thick volume that seemed to be from the restricted section. Her eyes met his, and he thought he saw something in them, as if she wanted to speak to him, but he wasn't sure. He himself had some questions that he wouldn't mind her answering, but this was not the time, nor the place. He shrugged this strange sensation off and went back to the dungeons to finish packing, and when he was done he headed for the train station with the others from his house.


	4. Chapter 4: Initiating First Contact

The summer had been as uneventful as ever, and Draco found himself almost happy to be back in school. Despite the fact that he would be forced to put up with the likes of Pansy Parkinson, Potter and the Weasleys, he would at least get some peace and quiet at times. Peace and quiet is a concept that doesn't exist in Malfoy Manor. There was one dinner party after another, ball after ball, they were always entertaining. He certainly had no idea who was paying for it all, but it couldn't be cheap. Between his father's work and mother's fortune they must've made it work, but Draco really disliked all the splendor, especially since he had to be a part of it all, playing the successful son.

Draco suffered through the entrance ceremony, and actually cheered for a few of the new Slytherin members. He figured the sooner it was over the sooner he could find a nice and quiet spot to read the book he recieved for his birthday, which was, admittedly, the 5th of June, before school even ended, but his parents had been adamant that they would house a party for him. He was 18, what a joke celebrating something so useless. His Trace had been removed a year prior, and he really didn't care for such arbitrary traditions, but it had made his mother happy, and that was at least something.

The library was empty, which wasn't surprising at all, and he happily sat down in his corner, or that he would, if it wasn't already occupied. In Zabini's lap sat Pansy Parkinson, and they were doing something that was definitely not reading. When Draco took a few steps closer Zabini looked up and fired off a smile. "What's up, Draco? You also came here to study?"

Draco was confused, and followed Zabini's eyes. He was looking at something behind him. Draco turned around and saw the girl with the messy hair standing right behind him, apparently they had all had the same idea.

Pansy gave the girl a grim smile, which immediately got her to turn around and run, the book still in her arms.

"You should probably go after her."

Draco didn't like the way Zabini said that, but he wasn't going to get any peace and quiet in here, so he left. He saw the girl running up the stairs to the Astronomy Tower and decided to follow her.

She was sitting in a corner by the railing, which the owl, that he had seen with her before, sat on. She was sitting with her knees under her chin, and her hair made it impossible to discern much else. He tried, nonetheless, to take a few steps closer to try and get a better view of the situation, and accidentally tripped over something, making an incredibly loud noise in the process. The girl looked up at him, and he could see the panick and fear in her eyes, as well as the tears trailing down her face. She just stared at him, and, not knowing what else to do, he walked up to her. The owl wasn't pleased, and tried to attack him when he bent down to pick up the book at her feet.

"Doesn't this belong in the restricted section?"

She stared at him, not saying a single word, tears still falling, and he took a closer look at the book. "Magick Most Evile... To think that anyone would read such nonsense."

"Knowledge is never nonsense." Her raspy voice, most likely from crying, made Draco's heart skip a beat. "For instance," she added, "if I wanted to, I could turn you into a ferret, or make you eat slugs, and I could accomplish all of this with simple knowledge that doesn't originate from the restricted section."

Draco smirked slightly and returned the book to her. "But if you can do all this, why don't you?"

She looked at him for a while, pondering the question, and then answered. "I suppose I don't have any reason to, nor have I any reason not to."

Draco could think of more than a few reasons, but dropped the subject and looked at her for a while before heading back down the stairs and into the Slyterhin common room. It was quite late, and he would not appreciate any misguided comments from Zabini. However, he had not yet returned, and it wasn't until later that night, at around 1 a.m, that he could hear his footsteps as he walked up to his bed and fell asleep without even changing.

The following day all routines returned to normal, but Draco now found himself actively searching for the strange girl. He had seen her a few more times, almost every night that there were no astronomy classes, up in the tower, either talking to that owl or just looking at the night sky. It had become a new routine, watching her at night. She behaved differently, more freely, than she normally did. In the corridors she would always keep her head down as she hurried along, as eager to avoid conversations as he was, but at night there was something serene about her.

At breakfast on the 19th he noticed that an owl had dropped a package for her, one that she immediately hid in her robes, and he couldn't help but wonder what it could be. Had not Zabini dropped down in front of him with a grim face he probably would have gone up to her and asked about it, despite the fact that they hadn't talked since that day in the tower.

"Hey, dude." He didn't sound pleased.

"What do you want, Zabini?"

"Pansy says you've been coming on to her."

Draco was confused. "Why on earth would I do that?"

"Come on, I know there must be something human underneath that robe of yours, besides, I thought you had your mind set on Granger."

Draco was getting annoyed. "I have no interest in either of them, besides, it was Pansy who 'came on' to me in a bad attempt at manipulating me."

Zabini looked over at Pansy, who was sitting a few seats down the table with her friends, and smiled at him when she noticed him looking. "That bitch! I knew she was a cheating-"

"I wouldn't exactly give you an award for being faithful either. I saw you with Astoria."

"I certainly tried, but it doesn't matter, Astoria is head over heels for someone else... Not for lack of trying though."

"Then I'd say you're perfect for each other."

"So how is it going with Granger?"

"Who?"

"Come on"

"I told you, I'm not interested."

"Sure."

Pansy was heading up to them, and Draco excused himself, leaving before he was forced to talk to her too. Draco ran into someone outside, sending the person flying, amd he was about to leave when he noticed who it was.

"Look where you're going next time, you cluts."

He didn't come up with a reply, and by the time he thought of apologizing she had already left. Honestly, the only one who he ran into this much was Zabini, or one of those wretched girls who seemed intent on flirting with him, at least until they realized he wasn't interested, but that girl was everywhere. No wonder Zabini was so mistaken, but Draco really had no interest in her whatsoever.

There was a rumor going around that he was gay, and honestly he preferred that to having girls running around him all the time. They were generally only after his money, or the money that would be his one day, or his body. He didn't look bad, he was, after all, quite healthy, looking after himself and regularly working out. Not that he needed to, but there just weren't enough homework to fill his time, and he could never think of anything else to do.

Guys were far less likely to come up and bother him, even though sometimes a few of them did, but they were never as persistent as the girls. Draco pondered this whilst heading to the library to finish up his charms homework. He thankfully wasn't disturbed by anyone, and went to bed early that night, determined not to be distracted by the absence of Zabini, and his inevitable return in the middle of the night.

Draco dreamt that night. He dreamt of a snake and green flashes of light, and a woman's scream, but he wouldn't remember any of it when he woke up, at 3 a.m, by Zabini's incessant snoring. He decided to get up and take a walk, and his feet led him to the Astronomy Tower, as they had so many times before.

 ** _Hey guys, Author here._**

 ** _I'm gonna take a little break since I'm heading to NärCon (a convent for geeks in Sweden). I know I haven't uploaded in a while, but it's all in preparation for the event (since I'm actually working there as one of the Pandas). I will get back to you with some sort of update schedule, when I've come up with one, that is, but as of right now it's going to be kinda irregular._**

 ** _Thank you for taking the time to read this little fanfic!_**


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